Luckily, Spring Training has begun, and if basketball continues to disappoint me, I can just switch over to Baseball Mode. In fact, this year could be the most enthusiastic Baseball Mode I've ever experienced, because much like the Flyers, the Reds won a title last year. An actually important/impressive one. And they have all the tools necessary to repeat. "Defending NL Central Champion Cincinnati Reds" has an awful nice ring to it...
 
Anyways, with the ad box surpassed and my PreRamble complete, I shall now cease with the pointless Rick Sports Teams Update, and give you what you came here to get... here are results/analysis from the just-completed Elimination Chamber pay-per-view:

• Alberto del Rio beat Kofi Kingston (in a non-title match). Del Rio did a little pre-match mic work to lather up the fans, but surprisingly, once the bell rang, there was very vocal minority of "del-ree-oh, del-ree-oh" chants. And they kept popping up throughout the match, too. Odd; there have been noticeable trends in terms of fans semi-warming to Sheamus and Drew McIntyre in the past few months, but never del Rio. Must be something in the water in Oakland... anyway, the match is a pretty good one, as the pro-del Rio contingent in no way affected the appeal of Kofi's flashy moveset, so when Kofi got off to a hot start, the crowd was right there with him. Del Rio even had to take a powder and confer with his personal ring announcer at one point. But once he got focused, he got back in the ring and commenced your standard formulaic Midmatch Heel Beatdown, with a nominal focus on Kofi's ribs.
   
  A note on commentary: Booker took a few digs at Kofi early in the match, saying he wasn't bringing the fire, and basically shat on Kofi's passivity... it came off wrong, but I think Booker was actually trying to make a (positive) point about Kofi's periodic displays of Angry Berzerker Mode (going back his breakout night at MSG when he destroyed Orton, and seen as recently as last week when he freaked out and attacked del Rio, Kendo Stick Style), and how that's a level of aggression that Booker thinks would serve Kofi well if he busted it out more often. Needless to say, even if Booker's heart was in the right place, a little voice came through his headset, and he stopped fumbling his words and became a big Kofi fan by the end of the match.
   
  About 8 minutes in, Kofi started his big rally, which climaxed with him nailing his alternate finisher (I think it's called the SOS)... but Ricardo once again came to his boss' aid, and distracted the ref. Kofi had del Rio pinned for a good 5 seconds, before deciding to get up and forcibly remove Ricardo from the apron. In so doing, he gave del Rio enough time to recover a bit, so that when Kofi turned his attention back to the match, Alberto was able to bust out a couple moves, and then went for his spinny cross arm breaker... Kofi tried to block the full application of the move, but after a brief struggle, it was locked in and Kofi tapped out. About 10-12 minutes, and solidly entertaining; the length was roughly what you'd expect for an anchor match on Friday nights, but they seemed to cram in a bit more stuff (especially with del Rio trying out a few new offensive moves).
   
  
• Edge retained the World Heavyweight Title by winning the SD Elimination Chamber Match. The other men in the match were Rey Mysterio, Kane, Drew McIntyre, Wade Barrett, and the mysterious replacement for Dolph Ziggler: the Big Show (who, if you read my preview in the Forums, wasn't so mysterious, afterall). Standard Chamber Rules are 4 men are locked in pods while two men start inside the massive steel structure; then the 4 men are released in random order at 5 minute intervals. Elimination is by pinfall or submission, only, until one man remains. They actually tweaked things a bit this year by disregarding the 5 minute interval (in favor of Cole vaguely referencing a "certain amount of time," same as they did with the undefined Rumble interval this year), and made a special point of stating that pinfalls would now be legal anywhere inside the chamber (not just in the ring). I don't believe that "anywhere" rule has been used in any of the past Chamber matches, but I've been informed that those have ALWAYS been the rules in all the WWE videogames of the past decade... is this the first instance ever of WWE "canon" being dictated by PlayBox 5000, or am I forgetting something?
   
  Anyway, on with the match, which starts with Edge and Rey; the story instantly becomes Edge's unfortunate entry spot. As the defending champ, he will now have to survive the full duration of the match and go through all 5 opponents (and history was already against him, since a World Champ hadn't successfully defended a title inside the EC since 1987, or something like that). That was the announcers' story, anyway... the in-ring story that I was digging was the fact that these were the only two plausible winners (del Rio needs a babyface to defend the title against him at WM27, and Edge is the current champ while Rey is a former champ who has plenty of history with del Rio, which means there's plenty of ambiguity that we fans can enjoy so long as both Edge/Rey are in the ring), and they did a nice job warming things up...
   
  After significantly less than 5 minutes, however, we added a heel dynamic as Wade Barrett's pod was opened. Barrett was able to weather some tag team offense by Edge/Rey, and take control of the match (including Rey's first crazy-ass bump of the night, as Barrett slid him across the cheese-grater floor of the Chamber, and headfirst into one of the steel beams). He also took some time to taunt the still-podded Big Show, which seems unwise.
   
  The interval again seemed closer to 3 minutes than to 5, but our next entrant is Kane. Ostensibly, this evens things at 2 faces/2 heels, but Kane's an Equal Opportunity Ass Kicker. This leads to all three men having to work together to try to put Kane down, which has mixed results. For this segment, Edge was able to periodically gain command, but it was mostly Kane. As this segment was wrapping up, Kane and Edge actually doubled up on Rey for a convincing near fall.
   
  After a longer interval (easily over 5 minutes), the next entrant was Drew McIntyre, who had been practically frothing to join the fray since the moment he was locked in the pod. Drew's first action: taking Rey's carcass, and tossing it through the plexiglass of his pod. Ouch. Rey gets to take a bit of a breather, and Drew continues his rampage by also tossing Barrett through some plexiglass. Nice sequence with teased finishes between Edge/Drew, all while Rey finally begins stirring and commands Kane's attention. With Barrett already down, the four all go for big moves (including Kane absolutely DESTROYING Rey by putting him through ANOTHER pod), and eventually all four are down as Barrett is nominally in the best condition.
   
  Which is unfortunate, since our final interval has expired, and Big Show now enters the match. And Big Show is not a fan of Wade Barrett. Barrett tried to run, but there is no escape inside the Chamber... Show eventually pummelled Barrett (including throwing HIM through yet another plexiglass pod), and then delivered the KO Punch to eliminate Barrett via pinfall.
   
  Everybody tried to team up on Show, only to have Show MANFULLY~! kick out of every pinfall attempt. The coolest attempt had Rey climb on top of a pod to hit Show with a seated senton, only to have Show kick out at 2 by launching Rey 12 feet across the ring. But the most successful attempts came once Kane decided to get involved and targetted the only other big man in the match...  after all the tacit agreement among the 5 non-Big-Shows, Kane hit a chokeslam, and that was finally enough to keep Show down. Show's the 2nd elimination.
   
  At this point, McIntyre once again got all full of piss and vinegar, and took it upon himself to attack Kane from behind as soon as Kane had dispensed with Big Show. Bad idea. Kane administered a big boot and another chokeslam, and Drew was sent packing mere moments after Show.
   
  Down to three, now. But not for long, as Edge and Rey decide to keep working together, and finally get some traction against Kane. Rey really came alive here (after spending the first 20 minutes of the match mostly as a lawn dart), and got a ton of near falls leading up to a final spot where Kane plucked Rey out of mid-air and seemed to be setting him up for the Tombstone... but Edge came out of nowhere to spear BOTH guys to the mat (with Kane landing "on the bottom," and thus supposedly getting the worse of it, even though Rey's back took the actual force of Edge's shoulder tackle). That was enough for Edge to get the 3 count, and make Kane the 4th elimination. Kane is ushered out of the Chamber, but decides he's not done: he attacks Edge from behind, and then nails him with a chokeslam. Rey is still hurting from the double spear, but Kane hoists him up, too, and delivers another chokeslam. NOW Kane's done, and he leaves.
   
  It's now 25 minutes in, and we're right back where we started: down to 2 men, and they are still Edge and Rey. Nice; the only two plausible winners started us off and now they're gonna finish things. And boy howdy, did they ever finish strong. After Kane's beating, Edge is first to his feet, and wastes no time sending us into a Turbo Fueled End Game... a spear attempt is countered into a small package by Rey. Then a springboard high cross body by Rey is turned into a roll-through and a near fall by Edge.
   
  And then they basically go back and forth like that for damned near 10 minutes. It was awesome. Finishers, reversals, double reversals, triple reversals, a dozen super-convincing near falls. I can't even imagine doing play-by-play, as that would do the match no justice. The live crowd was going ballistic for every false finish, and here at home, I actually popped up out of my seat and hollared in surprise on two separate occasions.
   
  The big finish had Rey hit his 3rd or 4th (619) of the match, and realizing that Edge kicked out of it the previous times, he decided to go tot he top rope for a big splash... but instead, Edge launched himself up and gored Rey out of mid air with a nasty MegaSpear. Unlike previous regular spears, the MegaSpear was enough to keep Rey down for a 3 count. Edge retains his title.
   
  Ladies and Gentlemen: we have an early Match of the Year candidate. Just 35 minutes of absolute awesomeness. If you like wrestling, you owe it to yourself to track this down on the youtubes and enjoy the hell out of it.
   
  
• And then, after the match: Edge is "celebrating" (by barely being able to stand up under his own power after the grueling victory) when Alberto del Rio sprints out and waylays Edge from behind. He continues to pound away and is just about to cinch in his cross armbreaker to do further damage to his WrestleMania opponent when suddenly some familiar music fires up and...
   
  HOLY SHIT, IT'S CHRISTIAN~! Absent for 6 months (and purported to require 2-3 more months of recovery), he dashes out to a huge pop and makes the big save for his best friend/brother (I don't remember if WWE is still pretending they're brothers for storyline purposes or not; probably not)... not only is Christian saving his pal, but he's also out for revenge, as del Rio is the man who tore Christian's pectoral muscle and necessitated the months-long absence (well, not really; but for TV/storyline purposes, del Rio gets the credit for Christian's very real injury). Knowing Christian is all angry and vengeful, del Rio actually decides to run away like a sissy... until Christian turns his back and takes a knee to check on Edge. At that point, del Rio sprints back and tries to Pearl Harbor Christian. Doesn't really work, as Christian is able to regain his footing and then go to town on Alberto, ending with an Unprettier.
   
  Play Christian's music as he enjoys a more conventional/upright "celebration" with the red hot crowd. Just an awesome little surprise/swerve on top of an already awesome match. I wish I could think of an awesomer word than "awesome" to abuse when describing the overall effect of that match followed by that angle. But I can't. So again: you should probably just go utilize the youtubes so you can experience it for yourself.
   
  
• Special In-Ring Segment #1: Booker T is in the ring with a mic, and it seems as though he's just wasting our time with a stupid plug for "Tough Enough." But then he ceases the plugging and declares he actually wants to fill us in on another little surprise, because he's got the next Tough Enough trainer lined up, and he thinks we'd like to meet them. And with no further ado...
   
  HOLY SHIT, IT'S TRISH STRATUS~! Absent for 4 damned years, she's here to (unfortunately) star on a "reality" show that I will absolutely not be watching. Oh well. Instead, I shall have to enjoy my beloved Trish in the here and now. Which is easy, because she's looking smoking hot, and when presented with a microphone, is also as appealing as ever as she decides to start stealing other people's catchphrases (including "Finally, the Trish has come back to Oakland" and others), which is fine until she steals from Booker. Which earns Trish a "You didn't just say that. TELL ME you didn't just say that." But it's all in good fun, and eventually Trish says she's looking forward to Tough Enough, but the reason she decided to stop in tonight to make the announcement is that she wanted to be here in support of Jerry Lawler on his big night. Booker agrees with that, and in fact, declares it to be something that can be dug, Sucka. Fin.
   
  Awesome match, great angle for Christian's return, and now I gets me some Trish. This may be the closest WWE has come to delivering The Perfect Rick Approved One Hour Block of TV in years. I can only assume some other of you non-Ricks enjoyed it immensely, too.
   
  
• Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel beat Santino Marella and Vladimir Kozlov to become the new Tag Team Champions. Santino and Vlad are among WWE's best crowd pleasers, but aren't exactly best of friends with the actual wrestling side of things... so they kept this short (even shorter than 2 of Santino/Vlad's free TV matches in the past few weeks), and the results were positive. Basic formula: Santino starts fast, Kozlov is the face-in-peril, hot tag to Santino, Pier 4 brawl, in the chaos, Zeke Jackson interferes on behalf of his Corre-mates, Gabriel is able to hit the 450 splash for the pin. All in under 5 minutes. Can't say it was "good," but it absolutely was the dictionary definition of "adequate," with an end result that should help the Corre gain some traction on SD.
   
  
• Special In-Ring Segment #2: Vickie Guerrero asks us to excuse her, as she (accompanied by Dolph Ziggler, which means being fired has had the exact same effect on him that it had on John Cena) would like to make an appeal to the WWE fans. In short: the plan to assualt Teddy Long so that Vickie could be Acting General Manager is something that Dolph is very sorry for, and it was an isolated incident, and please pleas please could everybody see it in their hearts to forgive him. She wants the fans to use the twitters and the facebooks and the omgtxtmsgs to bombard WWE with their support for the re-hiring of the now-domesticated Dolph Ziggler. The fans promptly assure her that dog won't hunt, monsignor.
   
  Cue Teddy Long's music, as he stands up on the stage to also assure Vickie that Dolph won't be getting re-hired on his watch... but he also says he's still in a re-hiring mood, so, hmmmmm, who might be out there looking to get re-hired. Oh yeah: it's Kelly Kelly, who was wrongfully terminated by Vickie 2 weeks ago.
   
  So here's Kelly, who looks like she'd like to get a piece of Vickie. Vickie tries to talk her way out of it, and then tries to scurry her way out of it... but Kelly's eventually able to get past Dolph and track her down. A beating is about to commence when LayCool hit the ring (Michelle in a walking boot, giving it her best despite an injury). Suddenly, Kelly's not looking so good, as she's on the wrong end of a 2-on-1 beatdown...
  
  But wait, never fear: TRISH STRATUS IS HERE~! Trish cleans house on LayCool, albeit somewhat awkwardly due to an unfortunate/inappropriate choice of ludicrously high-heeled footwear. McCool takes an I Refuse To Call It The Chick Kick Kick, while Layla suffers the handstand head sissors. And Trish wraps it up with a Stratusfaction Combo to leave 'em both laid out in the middle of the ring, so she can check on Kelly.
   
  Nice bit of business, especially if it means Trish will be doing more than working on the stupid TV show that I won't be watching. Even if it's not full time duty, you gotta imagine that this angle sets up at least one tag match, right? The more Trish we can get leading up to Tough Enough, the more enjoyable the Road To WrestleMania will be... especially if she's working with Kelly. Not just from the perspective that maybe Kelly will learn/improve with the experience, but also from the Horny Pervert perspective. Mmmmm, Trish and Kelly: talk about the perfect duo to scratch two entirely different itches. One to satisfy my shallow and adolescent yin, and the other to stratusfy my mature and discriminating wang. Er, yang.
   
  
  
• The Miz beat Jerry "the King" Lawler to retain the WWE Title. Some fans (of the Wanker school of thought) were vomiting in horror just at the IDEA of this match. Their opinions are to be discarded, as the EXECUTION of this match proved to be an absolutely dandy piece of Sports Entertainment. The Miz is Miz, and just perfect in his role as a complete prick; and Lawler adds so much to this special attraction BECAUSE of his age/underdog factor (the very things that the Wankers list as the reasons why this match is such a horrible idea and sure to be shitty). Something clicked with Miz/Lawler back in December (when they had a TLC Match on RAW), and WWE decided to change plans to run with the ball... based on the red hot crowd tonight, pulling for Jerry to beat the odds, they were wise to do so.
   
  Match really wasn't a display of grapplingsmanship, but they busted out the full bag of tricks to make it a lot of fun. Lawler started out going for every cheap roll-up and schoolboy he could, which Miz sold perfectly with a mix of frustration and "holy shit, I almost lost there" terror. That went on for about 2-3 minutes until Miz drew Lawler outside the ring, and Apprentice Alex Riley was able to drive Jerry into the steel ring post while Miz distracted the ref. Cue 5 minutes of standard heel beatdown, with Lawler taking about 90 seconds of punishment, then seeming to start a rally, only to have interference from Riley short circuit the come back.
   
  After a few of those hope spots, the ref finally caught Riley, and ejected him from ringside. This meant it was time for Jerry to start his genuine comeback, and he had the fans 100% behind him... more "sneaky" near falls for Lawler, including one that actually had the live audience fooled, I think (it was a sweet double-reversey deal that started as a piledriver by Lawler, turned into a Skull Crushing Finale attempt by Miz, but ended with Jerry slipping behind Miz for a backslide pinning combo). And then it even spilled outside for some brawling, which ended with Miz being thrown over the announce table in into Michael Cole's lap.
   
  Back in the ring, Jerry decided it was time to finish things up. He got on the second rope, pulled down the strap, and landed his flying fist drop... but Miz kicked out. Lawler was momentarily distracted by Cole leaping out of his seat and cheering for Miz's escape. When he turned back to Miz, he went for the piledriver again... this time, Miz flipped out of it and when King got his bearings back and went towards Miz, he walked right into a big boot to the head. Miz landed the Skull Crushing Finale, and that was that.
   
  A little over 10 minutes, and pretty much pitch perfect for what you could expect out of these two. Sure, Miz could have had a better "wrestling match" with a different opponent (and if it was John Morrison, it would have been MUCH better), but the story/entertainment value just wouldn't have been the same. Beating a midcard wrestler wouldn't angry up the fans and get him over even more... but by having the fans get so invested in a non-wrestler/underdog story, and then stealing all that feel-good mojo out from under their nose, Miz becomes an even bigger buzzkill jerkface than when he was beating Randy Orton 182 times in a row and making the Angry Demon Girl upset. A nice piece of business, all around...
   
  Oh, and it goes without saying that after the match, Miz left, and the King hung around the ring to receive a well-deserved "Jerry, Jerry, Jerry" chant.
   
  
• John Cena won the RAW Elimination Chamber Match to become the #1 Contender to the Miz's WWE Title at WrestleMania 27. Also involved in the match were CM Punk, Sheamus, Randy Orton, John Morrison, and R-Truth. The match begins with Morrison vs. Sheamus and the other 4 in their pods (which have all been fixed with fresh plexiglass). And while those two are giving it the ol' college try, the fans are more entertained by doing the ol' "Let's go Cena"/"Cena Sucks" chants. At least in this way, the Oakland crowd is the same as any other. [NOTE: and per usual, Cena loves it. His pre-match promo basically gave the fans permission to hate on him, as he took his verbal smackdown from The Rock, and played right into it by eating a bowl of Fruity Pebbles during said promo. Also, he pantomimed eating cereal during his entrance and while lounging in his pod. Alas, the crowd was too set in it's way to turn the dueling chants to "Let's go Cena"/"Fruity Pebbles."]
   
  Morrison got to shine for this first segment, whether he was on offense or defense. On offense, he was all flippity and spiderman-y; on defense he was taking sweet bumps. We got all of 3 minutes (the main event didn't even start till 10:20-ish, so they had reason to shave time), which is when the first pod opened. It was Randy Orton, who didn't play favorites as he went on the attack versus both guys. He basically cleaned house, so both Morrison and Sheamus were down when the 10 second countdown clock hit. Orton decided to go stand by the door of Punk's pod, hoping that his current arch-rival would be next to enter, so Orton can get some sweet sweet revenge on him.
   
  And sure enough, Punk's the next to enter. Sort of. There is a malfunction with the pod door, and it only opens a few inches... now he knows the pain of Derek Smalls! Punk is stuck with his arm out the door, which Orton grabs. Then Orton yanks back, pulling Punk headfirst into the pod door. The force of that is enough to jar the door open, and Orton pounces on the pre-debilitated Punk, hitting an RKO in the middle of the ring almost immediately. Punk is eliminated.
   
  Or not! The RAW Virtual GM chimes in, and announces that due to the equipment malfunction, Punk is being re-instated in the match, and is -- in fact -- being placed back in his pod to be re-released in a random order later. It goes without saying that Punk takes this opportunity to recover, and then spend his time sitting and lounging in his pod with a giant shit-eating grin on his face, basically taunting Orton with his rested and relaxed state at every turn. Aweseomly hilarious.
   
  Match continued with Orton mostly in control, and Morrison taking plenty more bumps on various parts of the unforgiving steel structure... Sheamus gets up a little head of steam just in time for the next unpodding: it's Cena, and Cena goes straight for Sheamus. Surprisingly, that didn't turn out so well, and Sheamus was in control of the match for a bit. Or at least: he tended to be the last man standing after some neat 3- and 4-man highspots.
   
  As such, the other guys were down and Sheamus was the only target when R-Truth was unpodded next. Truth got the better of Sheamus, and when the other guys recovered and came at him, he got the better of all of them for a nice little 90 second flurry... but Truth lost sight of Sheamus, and when he got all proud of himself and celebrated knocking everybody out, he turned around and walked right into a Brogue Kick. As fast as he entered, Truth was eliminated.
   
  Sheamus and Morrison hooked up for some spots on the outside steel platform, while WWE tried to milk the ol' he-goat by putting the spotlight on Cena vs. Orton inside the ring; just as at the Rumble, the crowd went mild for this alleged confrontation between babyface megapowers. But that's OK, because they didn't have to milk that for long, as the countdown clock bails them out, as we get ready for CM Punk to make his PROPER entrance to the match.
   
  Orton disengages from Cena with a half-assed dropkick and stalks Punk's pod again. But Cena doesn't care about Orton's personal agenda, and comes after Orton, allowing Punk to exit his pod unscathed. He gets to just stand by, casually observing as Orton has to deal with Cena, eventually hitting an RKO on Cena outside the ring... and then, before Orton can turn his attention to Punk, Orton eats a Brogue Kick out of left field from Sheamus... CM Punk's grin gets even shit-eatingier, and then he pounces on Sheamus, temporarily disabling him.
   
  Punk then rolls Orton's carcass into the ring and makes a cover. Only a 2 count. So Punk steps back and assumes Randall's "coiled viper" position in a mocking way. As soon as Orton stands up, Punk grabs him and nails the Go To Sleep. Orton is pinned and eliminated. He pro-Punk chants from the crowd as we're down to 4.
   
  Punk turned his attention to Cena (still down from the RKO), but Morrison chimed in and eventually Sheamus was back at full power, and Cena was given the time to regain his feet, and we got 5-6 minutes of these four going back and forth, leading up to a super duper high spot. As Cena and Punk were off in one corner doing their thing, Morrison was in control over Sheamus, and set up to hit a move off the top of a pod. But Sheamus wasn't hurt that bad, and he was able to get up on the top rope and tried to pull Morrison down. Instead, Morrison booted Sheamus in the face, and Sheamus fell back into the ring... at this point, Morrison decided on top of the pod wasn't good enough, and he grabbed the roof of the Chamber and pulled himself up so he was dangling from the ceiling. Then he "crawled" up and over to the middle of the Chamber ceiling, waited for Sheamus to get to his feet, and then dropped down from the heavens with a huge cross body. That was enough to keep Sheamus down for the count, and his elimination left us with three.
   
  I had it figured that Morrison (who did damage to himself with that move) would be quickly eliminated, but NOT SO FAST. By the time Punk and Cena had a chane to go after Morrison, he'd recovered, and we actually got a really sweet 8 minutes or so with all three guys. This is where the RAW guys decided to get in on the plexiglass smashing, and there were tons of near falls and ample brutality. Cool spot where Cena reversed Punk into an Electric Chair position, but before he could drop Punk, Morrison decided to add on by hitting a springboard flash kick to Punk's mush. Cena/Morrison ended with Cena hitting the F-U, but Punk had recovered and attacked Cena before an elimination could be made. Punk in command for a bit, and absolutely decimated Cena be ramming him through some plexiglass.
   
  Punk tried to do the same to Morrison, but Johnny actually came out of Punk's slingshot and spidermanned onto the pod and then over to the Chamber wall. When Punk charged, Morrison came off the wall with another flash kick, and Punk went down. Morrison got things all set up for Starship Pain, but Punk rolled otu of the way, and almost immediately hoisted Morrison up for the GTS. Morrison eliminated.
   
  Here, I was thinking we were set up for a nice extended sequence (like the SD Chamber), but once again my instincts were wrong, as a hyper-confident Punk seemed ready to engage a wounded Cena, fresh from his plexiglass nap... but Cena wasn't hurting at all, it seems. As soon as Punk was within reach, Cena perked up and grabbed him for an F-U... Punk tried to block it by holding onto the top rope, but Cena merely went to Plan B: instead of F-U'ing Punk inside the ring, he F-U'd him over the top rope and to the steel floor outside the ring. Ouch. And then, utilizing the "falls count anywhere" rule, Cena hopped out of the ring and pinned Punk on the steel floor. There's your new #1 Contender, gesturing (broadly) to the WM27 logo hanging from the ceiling as we close the show, indicating that we can now brace ourselves for Cena vs. Miz (probably with The Rock as the special ref) at the Granddaddy of Them All.
   
  Not on par with the SD Chamber, but still 35 minutes of really really good stuff. Morrison's stunts and Punk's creative booking were the easy highlights... it would have been nice to get more at the very end between Cena and Punk (instead of Cena's superman act coming completely out of left field for the insta-win), but looking at the clock, there was just no way to do it. They might have planned for a longer sequence, but the show was running long. As annoying as it is when PPVs come up 20-25 minutes short, I can't complain about getting damned near 3 full hours of entertainment (this is the first PPV in recent memory that went off the air with less than 5 minutes to spare), so I won't dock the RAW Chamber match much for that one flaw. Really good stuff.
  

There you have it, folks. Damned fine show, with a MotY candidate, plenty of other solid action, and a few sweet surprise returns, to boot. And it's also another PPV you didn't have to pay for thanks to The Me... you all know how to let me know that you appreciate it, right?
 
And with that behind us, we gear up for RAW and the big 2.21.11 reveal. The Road to WrestleMania just keeps getting more and more fun. I hope you're hopping on the bandwagon so you can enjoy the ride with me, kids...